First, thank you for such an interesting article.

When it comes to thinking about power (or anything else, for that matter), one of the greatest insights ever, to my mind, is from Warren J. Samuels. He all but defined "social power" as the ability to effect choices (i.e., choose among perceived alternatives and take action to bring that choice to fruition). Samuels was primarily concerned with the process by which choices get effected, but to me the idea that human beings, as well as any formal group of human beings (such as any society/nation), have no choice but to effect choices is one of the most powerful explanatory insights ever. It goes to the heart of relations among individuals and the structure and functioning of society (specifically, the political process, which can be defined as the process of effecting choices for the community as a whole, and the economy, which is always about nothing but effecting choices).